The present invention provides a device, system, and method for providing a portable handheld device for displaying information. An embodiment of the invention provides a portable handheld device for displaying information, including traffic information. The portable device includes a wireless receiver arranged for receiving an information-data packet having at least one payload element, a translation table arranged for decoding a payload element, and a microcontroller including a memory and a processor, and which is operable to decode the at least one payload element. The device also includes an information viewing screen that includes an incorporated traffic map having road-display segments corresponding to selected roads and the visual display, the visual display having a plurality of individually controllable display elements corresponding to the road-display segments, each element corresponding to a road-display segment and being arranged to display a plurality of visual properties each representing a different traffic condition.
The microcontroller may be further operable to decode at least one payload element in response to the grouping of bits within a payload element. The microcontroller may be further operable to decode at least one payload element in response to the grouping of bits within a payload element and the translation table. The information-data packet may include a plurality of payload elements arranged in a predetermined order. The microcontroller may be further operable to decode at least one payload element in response to the grouping of the payload elements. One payload element may include traffic information, and the translation table is a traffic-information translation table. The translation table may be arranged to decode traffic information encoded into one pair of bits for each road-display segment. A display element may include a liquid-crystal display (LCD), which may be a fixed-segment LCD. An unlit element may indicate no traffic congestion, a slow flash may indicate minor traffic congestion, a fast flash may indicate bad congestion, and a solid display may indicate severe traffic congestion. The receiver may be further arranged to receive the data packet from a pager service.
Another embodiment of the invention provides a method of displaying information in a portable handheld wireless receiver having a display. The method includes the steps of receiving an information-data packet having at least one payload element that includes traffic information, decoding a payload element, and displaying a traffic map having a plurality of fixed-road-display segments corresponding to selected roads, and further displaying a plurality of individually controllable display elements corresponding to the road-display segments, each element corresponding to a road-display segment and being arranged to display a plurality of visual properties each representing a different traffic condition. The decoding step may further include decoding traffic information in response to a traffic-information translation table. At least one payload element may have a predetermined size. At least one payload element may have a predetermined size, and wherein the decoding step may further include decoding in response to a grouping of bits within the payload element. At least one payload element may have a predetermined size and include traffic information encoded into one pair of bits per road-display segment, and the decoding step may further include decoding in response to a position of the pair of bits within the payload element. The data packet may include a plurality of payload elements in a predetermined order, and the decoding step may further include decoding in response to the order of the payload element. The receiving step may include further receiving the data packet from a pager service.
A further embodiment of the invention provides a method of providing information to a plurality of portable handheld wireless devices each having a display. The method including the steps of gathering data on selected information, including traffic information for reported road segments, conditioning the traffic information by reducing data for a predetermined number of reported road segments into one road-display segment, and encoding at least a portion of the gathered data. The method also includes creating an information-data packet having at least one payload element that includes traffic information, and causing the information-data packet to be transmitted to the plurality of wireless devices.
The conditioning step may further include the step of reducing four-reported road segments into one road-display segment. The traffic condition for a single-display road segment may be represented by a plurality of displayable levels. The encoding step may further include the step of encoding the conditioned traffic information in response to a traffic-information translation table. The encoding step may further include encoding the conditioned traffic information into a pair of bits for each road-display segment in response to a traffic-information translation table, the pair of bits representing four different levels of traffic congestion, and positioning pairs of bits may be in a predetermined order within a traffic-payload element. The each byte in the traffic payload element may contain traffic information for four road-display segments. The order of a pair of bits in each byte may determine the road-display segment for which the traffic information is being provided. The creating step may further include, within a payload element, grouping bits in a predetermined sequential order and assigning an information feature to each group of bits. The creating step may further include grouping bits of a traffic-information payload element into adjacent pairs, each pair of bits representing traffic information for one road-display segment, and the position of the pair of bits in the payload element determining which road-display segment is represented. The causing step further including causing the data packet to be transmitted over a pager system.
In a yet further embodiment, a computer-implemented system configured for providing information to a plurality of portable handheld wireless devices is provided. The system including a computer having at least one processor and data storage, and an Internet connection to the World Wide Web. The system further including a plurality of processes spawned by the at least one processor, the processes including gathering data on selected information from the World Wide Web, including traffic information for reported road segments, conditioning the traffic information by reducing data for a predetermined number of reported road segments into one road-display segment, encoding at least a portion of the gathered data, creating an information-data packet having at least one payload element that includes traffic information, and causing the information-data packet to be transmitted to the plurality of wireless devices.